Representation is not sufficient for selecting gender diversity

Justus Baron, Bernhard Ganglmair (), Nicola Persico, Timothy Simcoe and Emanuele Tarantino

Research Policy, 2024, vol. 53, issue 6

Abstract: One strategy for promoting female leaders in science and technology professions is to appoint more women to the committees that select leaders. Unfortunately, evidence from other settings, such as committees for selecting judges or professors, suggests this approach does not work. We use a natural experiment to test the idea that organizational norms supporting gender diversity are necessary for representation on “selectorates” to promote gender diversity among leaders in science and technology. Our empirical setting is the standard-setting organization that develops key protocols for Internet hardware and software. We find that when more women are randomly selected for the committee that appoints the organization's leaders, the committee appoints more female leaders, but only after a set of interventions meant to increase members' awareness of the benefits of gender diversity.

Keywords: Diversity in innovation; Gender; IETF; Randomization; Representation; Selectorate; Text analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J16 L86 M14 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Representation is not sufficient for selecting gender diversity (2023)
Working Paper: Representation Is Not Sufficient For Selecting Gender Diversity (2021)
Working Paper: Representation is Not Sufficient for Selecting Gender Diversity (2021)
Working Paper: Representation is Not Sufficient for Selecting Gender Diversity (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:53:y:2024:i:6:s004873332400043x

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2024.104994

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